AANB05090U Visual Anthropology

The course proposes to analyze fundamental questions in the
relationship between visual media and anthropology, with an
emphasis on anthropological film, surveillance imagery and
indigenous filmmaking.

Through the analysis of a series of anthropological film - both
classics and "outsiders" - the course explores the
relationship between visuality and anthropology, between film and
anthropological knowledge, between sound and image, between vision
and the other senses, between the world and the signs and images we
compose to convey it, trying to determine what is the part of the
anthropological in the analyzed media. Web/online-material will
also provide sources for interrogation.

During the course, we will explore the methodological and
epistemological implications of a audio-visual approach to the
field, an approach that creates particular fieldwork exchanges and
collaborations, sets up a stage for self-presentations, and offers
particular insights, examining observation as a multi-sensuous
practice.

A part of the course will be concerned with the analysis of
surveillance imagery, as well as indigenous peoples' use of
audio-visual media.

The course contains a practical part where the participants will
conduct a small fieldwork, approaching the field through a
audio-visual exploration and producing a small audio-visual
presentation.